About the Library

Ardon Windows
At The National Library of Israel

Mordecai Ardon’s stained glass windows are dedicated to Isaiah’s vision of eternal peace:

And many people shall come and say: “Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
Isaiah II:2-4

The left panel depicts the roads taken by the nations on their way up to Jerusalem. Each road is marked by the verse, “Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord…” in several different languages and alphabets including Latin, Greek, and Arabic.

The central panel focuses on Jerusalem. In the lower section the city wall is represented as the Dead Sea Scroll of the Book of Isaiah. Above the wall a piece of parchment carries part of the prophecy, “and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares.” Next to the parchment one can see a network of blue circles and lines – the Kabbalistic Tree of Sefirot. To the left of the Tree is a composition of Sefirot made of concentric circles, also derived from the Book of the Zohar.

The right panel is the vision come true: guns and shells beaten into spades which hover above them.

Jerusalem of the windows is not the real city of mortar and stone, nor is it the “Jerusalem of Gold.” The wall of stone that surrounds the city is transmuted into a spiritual wall made of the Scroll of Isaiah. Yet it is the wall we all recognize. Earthly Jerusalem is also the heavenly Jerusalem of the Kabbalists’ Tree of Sefirot, a symbol of the mystic, divine presence over the city. Old and new blend together – the weapons of today are turned into the spades of times past.

The windows were executed by Charles Marc at Atelier Simon in Rheims, France, through the initiative and efforts of Ephraim and Zfira Ilin.